"Your body is the first thing any child of man ever wanted. Therefore dispose yourself to be loved, to be wanted, to be available. Be there for them with a vengeance. Be a gracious, bending woman. Incline your ear, your heart, your hands to them.... To be a Mother is to be the sacrament - the effective symbol - of place. Mothers do not make homes, they are our home." from Bed and Board, Robert Farrar Capon

Sunday, May 12, 2013

A Quote for Mother's Day

"The saintly women desire nothing else than the
natural fruit of their bodies.

For by nature woman has been created for
the purpose of bearing children.

Therefore she has breasts; she has arms
for the purpose of nourishing, cherishing,

and carrying her offspring.
It was the intention of the Creator that women

should bear children and
that men should beget them."

Luther’s Works, 5:355

painting by Mary Cassatt

"Luther frequently celebrated the blessings of children and the wonderful calling of motherhood.

This
quotation from Luther is just as jarring today as it was in the
sixteenth century. In Luther’s day, church authorities had despised
motherhood and privileged celibacy. Today, society has transformed
motherhood from a badge of honor to a symbol of disgrace. Sure, Hallmark
still sells plenty of Mother’s Day cards, but just as this celebration
can be neatly scheduled on the calendar, so also motherhood must fit the
schedule of one’s busy lifestyle, rather than vice versa. Our
“pro-choice” world insists that true womanhood requires the ability to
choose against motherhood. But if motherhood is to be a choice,
shouldn’t it be God who does the choosing? After all, it is God who puts
to death and brings to life (Deuteronomy 32:39), and it is God who
opens and closes wombs (Genesis 29:31, 30:22)....

Luther understood that it was through marriage that God blesses all the
institutions of the earth, and that it was through marital procreation
that children should be born, and the church would prosper. If the
devil were to destroy motherhood, he would achieve a great victory
against the church. There would be fewer children being born, and fewer
being raised in God’s Word..."